


Faith and Trust and Pixie Dust (or: titles are hard)

by colorofmercury



Series: Shifting Gears [14]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Amputation, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-16
Updated: 2012-03-16
Packaged: 2017-11-02 01:36:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/363568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/colorofmercury/pseuds/colorofmercury
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Request for "some interaction between Tinkerbull and Tavros post his accident." It certainly took me long enough to get around to it. </p><p>With some bonus Nepeta! Just for fun. </p><p>This takes place not too long after Tavros first gets his mechanical legs put on. Tinkerbull will also show up later in the main fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Faith and Trust and Pixie Dust (or: titles are hard)

**Author's Note:**

> I'm going to regret using that title when I write another fic that actually includes any of those things and needs a suitably silly title.

“Taaaaaaavrooooooos.” 

You groan and roll over. 

“Taaaaaaaavroooooooos.” Again, this time a pitch higher. 

“What,” you say, or you try to. It mostly sounds like “mrf,” but you’re sure she understands. 

“I have a surpriiiiiise for youuuu.” 

She rolls you over and you try to open your eyes. It’s dim in the room--daytime, you think, but the curtains are closed. You would glance over at the clock to see what time it is, but everything is blurry and also Nepeta’s grinning face is currently taking up most of your field of view. You bring a hand up to wipe the gunk from your eyes. 

“What time is it,” you ask, and it’s actually mostly understandable this time. 

“Time for you to wake up so I can show you your surprise!” Nepeta is a first-thing-in-the-morning kind of person. You are not. She’s kind of hard for you to deal with. 

Still, she’s really excited about whatever this is, so you make an effort to wake yourself up. You yawn, and stretch your arms, and after a minute she obviously gets impatient because she huffs and dumps something on your chest. 

It also huffs. 

That wakes you up. 

“Tink!” You drag yourself up by your arms, beaming. He cheers up just as quickly, dropping his feigned irritation and nuzzling your stomach. It’s been ages since you’ve seen him. You haven’t been able to get back home, because even with your new legs you can still barely walk down the hall. 

Nepeta’s laughing as he rubs all over you, and you wonder if he gave her this kind of treatment on the way over. Then again, since she’s been taking care of him, he’s probably used to her by now and not as excitable. 

She sits back, chin in her hands, and she watches as the two of you catch up. She won’t be able to understand him, but you can: he tells you about how he’s missed you, about what he and Nepeta do while you’re gone (she’s not as good at cards as you are), and what have you been doing, and he heard about the crash, and he’s been worried. 

But you tell him you’re fine, and you’ve been well, and you’re glad he and Nepeta are getting along. 

Everything seems to go fine until he stands up on your lap and starts fidgeting. He takes a step back and his hoof comes in contact with metal instead of skin, and he looks up at you with panic. 

You feel your smile fade away, and when you glance up Nepeta is frozen, glancing between you anxiously. 

You sigh. 

“It’s okay, Tinkerbull. See?” You pick him up and shift him, pulling off your sheet. “These are my legs now.” 

He’s trying to paw at your legs so you let him go, and he goes snuffling around and prodding at them like it will help him figure out what’s wrong. 

He doesn’t really stop panicking. 

“It’s okay,” you tell him again, and you move one of your legs to show him. It still hurts a little. “Look, I can move them. I’ll be able to walk in no time.” He turns and huffs up at you, demanding and hurt. “They had to do this, Tink. The crash really damaged my legs, they couldn’t fix them.” 

There’s this pause, while he’s watching you, and you’re watching him, trying to get him to understand. 

After a long moment he deflates. His eyes go back to your legs. 

You haven’t really had the chance to think about this since it happened. It’s just been focusing on trying to recover, and talking to Equius and his friend Sollux, and… you never thought Tinkerbull might be scared, because you didn’t really think there was anything to be scared of. 

Your legs are gone. 

They’re just--they’re _gone_ , you don’t have them anymore, you’ve got these foreign metal things attached and who knows how long your body will put up with them. Will it get infected, will they break down, will you ever learn to work with them--will you ever walk properly? 

Can you ever ride again? 

Tink half-walks and half-flies up to your shoulder, where he nuzzles against your face and curls up in your neck. 

He’s proud of you, he tells you. You were brave. 

There’s this sudden sickly anxiety in your stomach, but you put up a hand to hold him there, and it’s comforting. Nepeta reaches out to put a hand on your other arm. When you look up she’s calmer than you’ve seen her in a long time, but there isn’t sympathy or pity in her smile. 

Only hope.


End file.
